Debtor on Friday, Secured Creditor on Monday… How can such things be?

Shimberg was not above stiffing the center in other ways. He was the owner of rg’s restaurant in the Tampa City Center Esplanade. In 1992, he and his partner sold the eatery to another corporation. The “payment” was a $150,000 promissory note to Shimberg that, as court documents state, “stripped the Debtor (rg’s) of all of its value.” Three days after the sale, the new owners filed for bankruptcy protection. That allowed Shimberg to morph, in only 72 hours time, from being the debtor who owed money to being the only secured creditor. Attorneys for the court trustee considered contesting what they called a “fraudulent transfer action,” but concluded there was little likelihood of recovering money. A lot of unsecured creditors got burned, including the Performing Arts Center, which wrote off $7,950.
 
Shimberg’s real estate ventures often have been recipients of government “wealthfare.” FishHawk, for example, in the early 1990s was a major embarrassment when details of a deal with the county surfaced. Shimberg and partners first asked Hillsborough officials to rezone FishHawk, upping its value. Then the county purchased part of the property at its increased worth, $4.3 million, for environmental protection. Shimberg had paid about $4,000 an acre — and sold it to taxpayers for about $10,000 an acre.
 
That wasn’t the first time county officials had stuffed money in Shimberg’s pockets. In 1984, Shimberg and partners paid $2.9 million for 626 acres of what news reports called “sludge-strewn pasture land.” Shimberg turned around and sold it to the county in 1987 for $8.1 million.
 
It’s nice to have friends in high places.
 
Neither paper mentions that he was the controversial gatekeeper for Mayor Sandy Freedman’s downtown deals. He was the mayor’s point man in finding a developer for a convention center hotel, and to no one’s surprise, Freedman selected a company that was headed by two of Shimberg’s business partners. That deal, which eventually collapsed, would have put taxpayers on the mortgage for as much as $150 million, while Shimberg’s partners would have had no risk and would have been paid millions of dollars in fees.
 
The newspapers, especially the Trib, knew most of the details about Shimberg’s history — the stories were in their archives. But those articles were written when the Trib still had some investigative teeth.
 
Now Shimberg has helped save the Bucs, which means the Trib can hope to keep its marketing deal with the team, and the privately owned portion of FishHawk Ranch is a good advertiser that is treated lovingly in news accounts.
 
When receiving the award, Shimberg told the audience: “I hope in some small way I’ve been able to repay what Tampa’s done for me.” That’s an accounting you’re not likely to see in the daily newspapers.

    Sources: The Tampa Tribune, July 31, 1991, “Developers reap profit on land at county’s expense”; St. Petersburg Times, July 16, 1992, Business Digest; Tribune, Oct. 16, 1992, “More scrutiny sought for county land buys”; Times, Dec. 19, 1992, “Two restaurants getting second life”; Times, Feb. 9, 1993, “Steinbrenner is tops with Civitan Club”; Tribune, Aug. 20, 1993, “Hotel dealmakers entice Tampa’s leaders”; Tribune, Aug. 31, 1993, Editorial: “Government deal with investors should be laid out for public review”; Times, June 7, 1996, “History indicates sales tax increase faces tough time”; Tribune, Feb. 24, 1997, “Trustees among those investing in ‘Plaid’;” Times, Feb. 25, 1997, “Finance Report Says Bucs Lost $33 Million”; Times, March 6, 1997, “Lawyers zero in on perk to Bucs”; Tribune, Feb. 10, 1998, “Tampa developer earns coveted Civitan award”; Tribune, Feb. 10, 1998, Editorial: “Citizen of the Year”; Times, Feb. 10, 1998, “Civitan award recognizes leader in sports, arts”; U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Case No. 92-9370-8P1, In Re: R.G.’s Esplanade Inc.; Tampa Tribune reporting files.   

Short Circuit at the Lightning
 
It must be tough being a sports writer at the Trib. For years, it’s hardly been a secret that something is ... well, odd, over at the Tampa Bay Lightning. Just who is this owner, Takashi Okubo? And what about all of the rumors that say a tsunami of red ink is crashing down on the team?
 
You won’t find many answers in the Trib. But you will if you read an investigation printed in the Feb. 5-11 Weekly Planet or a similar piece in the March 30 Sports Illustrated. Both articles detail the miserable management that has made the Lightning a laughingstock. Both articles raise questions about the mysterious Okubo, whose businesses appear to be largely vapor and whose underlings can’t prove where his money comes from.
 
 Having been thoroughly outscored by the local and national press, what’s the Trib’s response? It has become the mouthpiece for Lightning officials, who blame everything on sports consultant Marc Ganis. Claiming he was squeezed out of the deal to build an arena, Ganis last year sued the Lightning.

The Trib has chosen not to investigate on its own but to give readers only the team’s spin, such as this quote from the petulant Bolts’ CEO Steve Oto: “There are some untrue statements quoted by Sports Illustrated. They just quote what Marc Ganis said.”
 
Not quite. SI’s numbers — and those printed in February by the Planet — came directly from the Lightning’s own consolidated financial statements. They weren’t figments of Ganis’ imagination. The Planet gave Lightning officials an opportunity to deny the authenticity of the financial documents; the team honchos didn’t make the denial.
 
Ganis’ lawsuits, and other litigation, have released a lot of documents on the team. You don’t have to be a fan of Ganis, however, to appreciate the incredible story of chaos and debt contained in the litigation — that fact, escapes the Trib editors.
 
And, despite intensive research by the Planet and by SI’s Tokyo correspondent, no evidence has been found that Okubo’s business enterprises are anywhere near a size that could generate the roughly $80 million that has been shipped from Japan to the Lightning. The Lightning claim Okubo’s Kokusai Green Co. Ltd. has hundreds of millions of dollars in assets from memberships in golf clubs. Yet, SI found that Kokusai Green “isn’t listed among (Tokyo’s) 10,000 largest businesses, nor is it one of Japan’s 500 biggest recreational golf, leisure-sport or recreational companies.”
 
That is what the Trib should have been reporting on.
 
The team has filed a motion in Ganis’ federal lawsuit to slap the lid of secrecy on proceedings. That would be outrageous. Taxpayers have invested at least $87 million in the Lightning’s Ice Palace, and have a right to know everything about the custodian of this public asset.
 
The debacle shows little sign of diminishing. Just last month, a former partner won the right to garnishee the Lightning’s bank accounts to settle a $1.5-million judgment. The team has until June 30 to cough up.
 
Meanwhile, what is really going on at the Lightning? Where did Okubo’s money come from? Don’t expect answers in Tampa’s daily newspaper. Could it have something to do with the Trib’s cozy marketing deal with the Lightning, including publishing the official team newspaper?

 
   Sources: Weekly Planet, Feb. 5-11, 1998, “Palace Meltdown”; The Tampa Tribune, March 25, 1998, “Oto: SI’s portrayal of Bolts in ‘Turmoil’ is not accurate”; Tribune, March 26, 1998, “NHL: No probe necessary”; Sports Illustrated, March 30, 1998, “Team Turmoil”; Coliseum Holdings Inc. vs. David LeFevre, Lightning Partners Ltd., “Defendants Motion for Entry of an Umbrella Confidentiality Order.”  

Jihad Journalism

In the summer of 1995, The Tampa Tribune launched a series of articles targeting an Islamic think tank at the University of South Florida and claiming that academics had “ties to terrorists.”

Federal authorities dutifully fell in line and began an investigation. Apparently, America’s mighty array of law enforcement agencies had been blithely unaware that, as the Trib’s primary source and mentor Steven Emerson claims (with a straight face), “One of the world’s most lethal terrorist factions was based out of City of Tampa (sic).”
 
Almost three years later, no charges have been brought. But great personal damage has been done. An academician, Mazen Al-Najjar, has been in an immigration jail for 11 months, based on secret evidence — a violation of every principle of American law and fair play.
 
Others also have had their lives damaged. Sami Al-Arian, a respected engineering professor, hasn’t been allowed to teach while a federal grand jury grinds through its investigation. Families are near financial ruin.
 
Three things are clear:
 

•    The Tribune has refused to print a balanced version of events. This is not just the claim of local Muslims. One of Florida’s most respected journalists, Miami Herald Senior Writer Martin Merzer recently wrote a comprehensive report on this Tampa drama. Merzer concluded that while the facts reported by the Trib leave “a lot of room for perfectly innocent activity,” the Trib chooses to give only one interpretation. “The tone, the presentation, the volume of the stories suggested, intentionally or not, that extremely dark forces were on the prowl in Tampa,” Merzer wrote.

•  The Trib has been highly biased in its selection sources. Experts who haven’t agreed with the thesis of a terrorist threat have been interviewed by the Trib — but not included in the reports. Characterizations of people, events and organizations, as well as translations of Arabic, are disputed — but little of that disagreement is included in the articles.

•  The impact of the Trib’s reporting has been to muzzle one voice in the debate over Middle East issues. Was that the intent of those who provoked the articles? Emerson told the Herald: “I feel much more comfortable knowing that Mazen Al-Najjar is in jail and that Sami Al-Arian cannot speak and propagate his message to young students.”

    Sources: CovertAction Quarterly, Summer 1995, “Government Intelligence Abuse”; Letter to Luis Coton from Tribune Managing Editor Bruce Witwer, July 15, 1997; Steven Emerson, Feb. 24, 1998, “Foreign Terrorists in America: Five Years After the World Trade Center Bombing” (testimony to a U.S. Senate subcommittee); Letter to U.S. Attorney Charles Wilson from USF Associate General Counsel Henry Lavandera, Feb. 24, 1998; Letter to U.S. Sen. John L. Kyl from Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, March 2, 1998; The Miami Herald, Tropic Magazine, March 22, 1998, “The Secret War.”   

The Rail to Riches
 
In his recent book, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, one of America’s foremost thinkers, Noam Chomsky, wrote of the underlying philosophy of some political leaders: “This theory asserts that only a small elite ... can understand the common interests, what all of us care about, and that these things elude the general public.” He goes on to describe this elite’s self-appointed mission: “We’ll drive the stupid masses toward a world that they’re too dumb to understand for themselves.”
 
Maybe he didn’t have the advocates of a Hillsborough mass transit system in mind. Maybe he wasn’t thinking of The Tampa Tribune. But he could have been.
 
The issue isn’t whether Tampa needs a commuter rail or not. Many honest, well-intentioned people, especially County Commissioner Ed Turanchik, believe we do. Others — equally honest and well intentioned — demur. Nor is the issue a vision of the community. Again, there are eloquent arguments on both sides of the rail vs. roads, urban vs. suburban debate.
 
No, the issue is democracy — and to have democracy, you need debate.
 
Proponents of rail don’t think you are savvy enough to understand the type of community you want to live in. That’s why they won’t let you vote this November on a commuter rail project. They will let you vote two years later — after they’ve “educated” you, and after they’ve pumped another $18 million into their consultants’ pockets.
 
The Trib, meanwhile, isn’t about to let the debate blossom on its pages. Its job, as Chomsky wrote, is to “drive the masses” (or “railroad the masses”). In early February, public documents were released that showed rail would not cost the modest $300 million that had been the underpinning of the project’s sales pitch for nearly a decade. Rather, the project’s price tag had soared to more than four times that amount to almost $1.4 billion.
 
Maybe the train will be worth a billion-something. Maybe not. Either way, you didn’t read that stunning development in the Trib until weeks after the news was out. Then, only after chiding by the Planet (sorry, it’s our job), did a Trib editorial on March 15 off-handedly admit that there had been a slight miscalculation in costs. And, of course, that admission was sugarcoated in a glowing spin-control version of the virtues of rail.

    Sources: Weekly Planet, Jan. 15-21, 1998, “The Ride Stops Here”; Alternatives for Mobility Enhancement Major Investment Study, Feb. 13, 1998, “Financial Plan Part 1: Overview of Costs”; Planet, March 5, 1998, “A Billion or Bust”; The Tampa Tribune, March 15, 1998, Editorial: “The many practical reasons behind our longtime support for local rail.”   

Scalping the Times
 
Late last summer, the Seminole Tribe caught the scent of reporters from the St. Petersburg Times skulking around the reservations. Actually, the Seminoles didn’t have much trouble detecting the journalistic interlopers — the scribes had sent inflammatory letters to tribe members. The maladroit missives stated that the Times had abandoned any semblance of objectivity or fairness. The reporters knew the answers before they asked the questions.
 
“I’m aware that you may be in possession of certain documents that could help our pursuit of the truth: namely how rank and file tribal members are being hurt by irresponsible leadership,” stated a June 30, 1997, “Dear Pat” letter to Chief James Billie’s personal assistant, Patricia Diamond. Talk about chutzpah!
 
Journalism ethics experts were aghast at the Times’ tactics. The Weekly Planet ran a lengthy column on the outbreak of the “Fourth Seminole War.” “Makes my skin crawl,” one journalism professor told the Planet. Editor & Publisher, a national trade journal, took note, as did MSNBC.
 
Tribal members began complaining of what they described as harassment. O.B. Osceola Jr. told the Planet that Times reporters got him to agree to an interview by saying they wanted “to come out and take some photos of the chickees we build.” After some innocuous initial questions, the reporters began trying to pry out information on a dispute Osceola’s family has with the tribe. “They kept calling and calling and calling, non-stop, doing it to my sister, too. They were hassling us with the calls.”
 
One woman said the Times men had somehow learned about her years-old drug arrest and an out-of-wedlock pregnancy — and, according to the South Florida newsweekly New Times, she “got the distinct sense that the Times was using the information to pressure her into acting as a spy.”
 
As the battle lines were drawn, a confrontation became inevitable. On Oct. 22, tribal leaders met with the reporters under a picnic pavilion in Gulfport. After the interview, the tribe scooped the Times by having the entire session transcribed and posted on the Seminoles’ Web site.
 
In December, the Times finally ran a three-part series. Times’ Tampa City Editor Tom Scherberger wrote the Planet: “This newspaper is proud of the work that was published.” Others are less complimentary. New Times last month ran a lengthy story on Chief Billie and the tribe, concluding that the St. Pete newspaper’s series “contained a great deal of rehashed allegations about alleged mob connections to Indian gaming from as far back as the ’70s, and precious little new information.”
 
So, a lot’s been written about the Seminoles. Where’s the censorship, you ask?
 
Nowhere in the Times series was the serious debate over its reporting tactics, its newsgathering practices and its ethics discussed. There was only incidental mention that the tribe’s Seminole Tribune had written articles, but the substance of those articles as well as the specific complaints were ignored.
 
Scherberger stated: “The tribe has not raised a single substantive question about the major issues related to the series. It also has not contacted anyone at the Times to point out alleged errors.”
 
Some problems there. A tribal employee, Pete Gallagher, has written the Times. The letters editor at the newspaper told the Planet the dispatch didn’t run because it was “too long.” Gallagher said it was only one page. Either way, newspapers often receive lengthy letters and edit them — or the writer is contacted and asked to shorten the submission. Other letters from tribal supporters also have not been printed.
 
Despite this refusal to print criticism of the series, the Times felt no hesitancy to editorialize, urging state and federal lawmen to use “their full powers to force the Seminoles to unplug their slot machines and better justify their federal subsidies.”
 
When a list of 21 “alleged errors” and complaints was forwarded by the Planet to Scherberger, he declined to answer the specific points and suggested critics re-report the story by checking public documents. It is common for newspapers, when challenged on accuracy or fairness, to print the criticism and respond with a rebuttal, clarification or correction. Moreover, it is impossible to independently verify many of the newspaper’s assertions because the sources are not named or are vague. For example, one Times article states: “... a study in 1992 reported that only 1 percent of the tribe’s youths actually earn a college degree.” Seminole officials say the number isn’t accurate and ask: “What study? And why use something that old?”
 
The tribe is furious that lack of a formal response would be interpreted as an admission that the series was on target. “The reverse is true,” Shore said. “It’s hardly worth the time to respond. There was so little new in that series. There was no journalistic objectivity.”
    The simple fact is that, in the series, Times readers have been deprived of very basic information: The criticism of the newspaper’s reporting methods and the counter-offensive launched by the Seminoles. Moreover, despite demanding openness from virtually all other institutions, the Times refuses to discuss, much less assist, independent inquiry into its newsgathering.
 
    Sources: Editor & Publisher, Sept. 26, 1997, “Tribe Launches Attack on Newspaper”; Weekly Planet, Oct. 2-8, 1997, “Tribal Warfare”; St. Petersburg Times, three-day series, Dec. 19-21, 1997; main story first day, “In Seminole gambling, a few are big winners”; Times, Dec. 23, 1997, Editorial: “A dangerous gamble”; New Times, March 19, 1997, “Big Chief Moneybags”; Letter, Planet Senior Editor John Sugg to Times City Editor/Tampa Tom Scherberger, March 19, 1998p; Letter, Scherberger to Sugg, March 24, 1998;  For a complete transcript of Chief James Billie’s interview by the Times, go to: http://seminoletribe.com/Tribune/transcription.shtml  

To Hell With Consumers
 
Have you ever read the so-called automobile “columns” in the Trib or Times? Ever find anything in those columns critical of car dealers? Not likely. The columns, masquerading as journalism, are advertorials. The newspapers are willing co-conspirators in what most consumers know is the con job of selling cars.
 
Elsewhere in the newspapers, unless a car dealer has been indicted for screwing the public, or is about to be indicted, don’t expect to see it in the daily newspapers. And never do the papers question the standard operating procedures of the dealers: bait and switch, intentionally “wrong” ads, harassment of potential buyers, etc.
 
Florida has laws that are the most protective in the nation for car dealers. Competition is a near myth because the law guarantees the dealers exclusive territories. A study by the Florida Legislature’s own analysts found that consumers pay about 6 percent more for cars in Florida than in more competitive states because of the protective legislation.
 
The Weekly Planet investigated last year and found there’s little likelihood legislators — who receive massive campaign contributions from car dealers — will end this form of welfare for the rich.
 
Nor are you likely to see daily newspapers come to the defense of consumers. Take a look at all of those pages of car advertising.

    Sources: Florida Office of Program Analysis and Government Accountability report, February 1996; Weekly Planet, Aug. 21, 1997, “Drive Shafted.”   

Not on the Newspaper’s Menu
 
In October, the Weekly Planet told you about a nasty little story in Hillsborough County schools. A broker who is the husband of the schools’ food director dominated food sales. It seems anywhere else but Hillsborough County people would say: “Damn, but that’s a conflict of interest.”
 
Subsequently, civil suits have revealed more details about the unsavory situation in school lunchrooms. Hillsborough Superintendent Earl Lennard did the right thing and launched an investigation following the Planet’s reports. So far, the probe hasn’t concluded.
 
The Tribune, however, has been out to lunch on this story. Why? It’s hard to fathom. However, school officials have been trying to keep the lid on this story for years. One of those officials, an aide to former Superintendent Walter Sickles, was spokesperson Donna Reed. She is now the deputy managing editor of the Trib.

    Sources: Weekly Planet, Oct. 2, 1997, “Deals on Meals.”  

The Unholy Gentleman’s Agreement
 
In the last three years, the Tribune’s staff has been decimated by cutbacks or by journalists getting fed up and deciding to split. Just in recent weeks, top political, family and medical reporters have said adios. One reporter told the Planet: “I’m going to (a newspaper) that believes in news. This place is just one cutback after another.” Another said: “It’s like the scene in Titanic where the rats are running ahead of the water. That’s what we’re trying to do, get to safety.”
 
There have been death threats on Trib executives from, apparently, disgruntled employees.
 
There is an increasing cross-promotion between the newspaper and WFLA-Ch. 8, which is owned by the same parent company. Such corporately incestuous activity is allowed only because of a loophole in federal regulations.
 
Meanwhile, over at the Times, some staff members call the place a “velvet coffin” — good money, but insensitive and often vindictive management. “The middle managers will back you up, but not the top guys,” said one reporter.
 
Recent firings of two popular photographers, one with almost two decades of tenure at the paper, have fostered a wave of resentment — in part, according to reporters, because of the humiliating way the victim was frog-marched out of the building. “The bosses wanted to avoid a show of staff sympathy such as what happened when they fired (popular editorial cartoonist) Clay Bennett,” one reporter said.
 
Another reporter said Times management, traditionally a boys club, has retaliated on women staffers. “We were once proud to have a women’s committee,” said one reporter. “But management has done everything it can to undermine it. Most of the women involved have been moved down or out.”
 
How much news is there in any of those allegations? If there was such turmoil in other major businesses or institutions, you can be sure the newspapers would be looking for stories. But, for years, an apparent gentleman’s agreement has kept the newspapers from reporting on each other. Both newspapers fear retaliation.
 
The danger to the public is that the daily newspapers are heavyweight players in civic affairs. Pet causes and favored friends receive special treatment from each publication — with no fear that the competition will blow the whistle. Both newspapers are big businesses, yet their internal operations are off limits to each other’s reporters — a privilege enjoyed by no other enterprise in the Tampa Bay area. 

    Sources: Lexington Herald-Leader, June 22, 1997, “Signals for Lexington”; Jacksonville Times Union, Aug. 14, 1997, “Owning the airwaves”; The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 21, 1997, “Mr. Brewer the Pirate Doesn’t Rule Waves, He Just Makes Them”; Tampa Tribune, Nov. 20, 1997, “Tampa’s Party Pirate Busted!”; Weekly Planet, Dec. 11-17, 1997, “Pulling the Plug”; Jacor Communications Inc., Feb. 2, 1998, press release; The Federal Communications Commission, Feb. 5, 1998, public notice; Tribune, Feb. 10, 1998, “Phantom Powers ‘Pirate’ on the Air”; The New Republic, March 9, 1998, “Rebel Radio”; Seizing the Airwaves: A Free Radio Handbook; Tampa Bay Radio, “Chronicle of the Tampa Bay Pirates”; Free Radio, http://www.freeradio.org http://home.earthlink.net/~ddsradio/group.htm 

Field of Bad Dreams
 
There were hours of breathless telecasts and tons of local news print dedicated to the coverage of major league baseball coming to St. Petersburg, but it contained lots of repeated hype and little critical analysis. Most of the local media merely repeated without question the exaggerated economic impact figures tossed around by Devil Ray’s owner Vince Naimoli and the city of St. Petersburg. Hometown newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times, did finally point out some holes in the projected figures, but not until three days before the game, and even then overlooked many previously reported by sister publication, Florida Trend, a statewide business magazine.
 
For instance, Naimoli claimed that the team will bring an additional 1.5 million tourists to the area, but as Florida Trend  pointed out that’s a 62.5 percent increase and 40 percent beyond the capacity of Tropicana Field.  And that’s only a taste of the exaggerated numbers perpetuated by many newspaper and virtually all broadcast accounts.
 
St. Petersburg residents spent more than $200 million on Tropicana Field and handed it over to the Devil Rays, which now stands to profit not only from game ticket sales, but ticket sales of all Tropicana Field events. Team owners also will receive a percentage of merchandise, restaurant and concession sales from the numerous businesses largely paid for by taxpayers.
 
Sure, the city will likely benefit, but a realistic assessment of how much, and who stands to benefit the most, was rarely seen in the local press until the week before opening game.

    Sources: Florida Trend, Feb.1998, “Field of Dreams; St. Petersburg Times, March 29, 1998, “Baseball: boon or boondoggle?”; St. Petersburg Times, March 10, 1995, “Business may bask in warm fiscal rays”; St. Petersburg Times, April 20, 1995, “Mayor says dome’s wealth will spread”; St. Petersburg Times, Aug. 9, 1992, “Would baseball mean a tax break?”; St. Petersburg Times, May 19, 1991, “Baseball may determine financial swing for city”; The Tampa Tribune, and television and radio stations throughout the year.